Menu

where sweet & savory meets!

Cooking/Baking anything fuss free is the way to go for me! i guess it has something to do with my career. With the amount of intricate detailed pastry work i have to do, i would prefer not to do anything too dainty or really complicated if i were to prepare a quick dinner for the family 😀

This rigatoni pasta pie was really yummy and fuss free. What’s better? i’m using the PushPan from Kitchenary and it’s perfect for me as lining and wrapping the springform pan is the last thing i want to do after a long day at work. This pan is really a lifesaver. No constant fear of the pan leaking or the pasta sticking to the pan if not oiled properly!

Recipe

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Pasta

ingredient

450g Rigatoni Pasta

15g Olive Oil

Salt

Method

In a pot of salted boiling water, cook pasta until slightly underdone

Once pasta is done, rinse under running water and toss pasta with olive oil to prevent it from sticking

i have been a little addicted to bread baking recently! One of the reason was because i had to prepare for my classes and the other reason was because i had quite a bit of french flour at home and i needed to find ways to use them up!

But of course the dad is super excited about me having bake him fresh bread every other day! The thing about sourdoughs is they never get thrown away at my home. We use them for sandwiches and whatever balance gets made into croutons and breadcrumbs!

Recipe

Liquid Levain

ingredients

30g Plain Flour

30g Water

10g Liquid Levain

Method

Mix all ingredients together and let it stand at room temperature for 2-3 hours till it doubles in volume

Dough

ingredients

217g Plain Flour

134g Water

4g Salt

44g Liquid Levain

Method

Mix all ingredients in the stand mixer with the dough hook till windowpane

Rest and bulk dough for 4 hours with 1 Stretch and Fold at every hour interval

Pre shape dough and rest for 20 minutes

Final shape dough and proof at room temperature till dough is proofed

Preheat stone and lava rocks in the oven for an hour

Bake in a preheated oven at 250c for 20 minutes and 230c for 15 minutes

**Remember to pour water over lava rocks to create steam

Love the sun ray coming thru the bread! i opted for smaller crumbs as the dad wanted to make some sandwiches and of course you do not want filling falling all over while eating!

Tell me who doesn’t love the smell of freshly baked bread wafting through the house? Baking sourdough breads in a commercial oven is easy but baking it in a built in oven at home is no easy feat! i have been messing around with different ideas and set ups just so that i could teach my sourdough class and students are able to bake them at home! My idealogy of a class is such that students are able to replicate what is done in class and not something which is really far fetched and unattainable!

After trying a couple of methods, i got the best results from baking the bread on a stone with water poured over lava rocks to create the steam needed for the oven spring!

Recipe

16 Hours Stiff Levain (60% Hydration)

ingredients

60g T65

36g Water

4g Stiff Levain Starter

Method

Mix all ingredients together and leave it at 22-24c for 16 hours

Flaxseed Soaker

ingredients

40g Flexseed

62g Water

Method

Soak flaxseeds and water overnight

Dough

ingredients

36g WholeWheat Flour

280g T65 (Or any kind of strong bread flour)

36g T45

7g Salt

256g Water

102g Flexseed Soaker

70g Levain

Method

Mix all ingredients (excluding flaxseed soakers) together in a stand mixer with the dough attachment till windowpane stage

Add in flaxseed soaker

Rest and bulk dough for 3 hours with 1 Stretch and Fold at every hour interval

Pre shape dough and rest for 20 minutes

Final shape dough and proof at room temperature till dough is proofed

Preheat stone and lava rocks in the oven for an hour

Bake in a preheated oven at 250c for 20 minutes and 230c for 15 minutes

Don’t we all love a light and fluffy cake that is light on the palate? If that’s that you like, i have the perfect recipe for you! As much as i bake, i almost never eat my own bakes except for a taste test, but i could chow down a slice of this which pretty much says a lot about the cake! 😀

i would say, the main ingredient of this cake will be the matcha powder; so please use a decent matcha powder that you could get your hands on! Remember, dodgy matcha gives you dodgy cake! i’m using O’Sulloc which i managed to snag a couple of bottles from korea and these are really good!

It’s the time of the year again where christmas bakes goes crazy! Presenting the Pandoro, a sweet, butter and egg rich Italian holiday bread!

Pandoros are traditionally made in star shaped moulds or you could use any regular bundt bands or even panettone moulds! For the ease of easy baking, i have used a hybrid starter instead of a traditional sweet starter although i do have that; those sweet starters are great for panettone! Go ahead and use the sweet starter if that’s what you prefer.

Recipe

Yields 2 500g Loaves

Hybrid Starter

ingredients

100g T45 (Or any Bread Flour)

1g Instant Yeast

2g Salt

20g Liquid Sourdough Starter

60g Milk

Method

Mix all ingredients together and bulk at room temperature for an hour

Transfer to chiller and bulk overnight for 12 hours

Dough

ingredients

400g T45 (Or any Bread Flour)

10g Milk Powder

7g Instant Yeast

150g Milk

8g Salt

183g Hybrid Starter

150g Yolks

250g Butter

1/2 Pod Vanilla Bean

80g Sugar

Method

Beat butter with vanilla bean till well mixed, set aside in the chiller

With all the cheese tarts craze going on now, i was thinking i have to bake some soon! Having tried most of the baked cheese tarts out there, i must say they are really good but it’s always the case where if the fillings are really good, the tart shells are just meh and vice versa.

Of course the need to add durian into whatever possible since my family loves them and the fact that i’m baking for the family, i would usually try to incorporate some healthier options since i’m feeding the seniors in the family!

Recipe

Wholemeal Tart

ingredients

174g Plain Flour

52g Wholemeal Flour

124g Butter

38g Sugar

32g Eggs

Method

Mix plain flour, wholemeal flour and caster sugar together

Rub in cold, cub butter till it resembles coarse bread crumbs

Add in eggs and bring the dough together

Rest dough in the freezer for 30 minutes before working on it

Take dough out from freezer and weigh into 35g dough, press into tart mould

Bake at 200c for 10 minutes for lava cheese and 15 minutes if you prefer something a little firmer

i’m using the tart mould from PushPan, brought in by the people behind kitchenary! Discount code below for those who are interested! Awesome mould as there is no worries about the tarts sticking to the bottom of the pan! For this, all you need to do is to push it up with ease! Perfect for lazy people like me!